114 Facts About Tage Erlander

Tage Erlander was elected to Lund's municipal council in 1930, and in 1932 he was elected as a member of the Riksdag.

For most of his time in power, Tage Erlander ran a minority government of the Social Democrats.

The Social Democrats held a majority of seats in the upper house for most of this time and this allowed Tage Erlander to remain in power after the 1956 general election, when the right-wing parties won a majority.

Tage Erlander resigned the following year during a process of major constitutional reform, and was succeeded by his long-time protege and friend Olof Palme.

Tage Erlander continued to serve as a member of the Riksdag until he resigned in 1973.

Tage Erlander was considered one of the most popular leaders in the world by the end of the 1960s, and one of the most popular prime ministers in the history of Sweden.

Tage Fritjof Erlander was born in Ransater, Varmland County on June 13,1901, on the top floor of the house today known as Erlandergarden.

Tage Erlander's parents were Alma Erlander and Erik Gustaf Erlander.

Tage Erlander's paternal grandfather, Anders Erlandsson, worked as a smith at an ironworks, and his maternal grandfather was a farmer who held a public office in his home municipality.

On his maternal grandmother's side, Tage Erlander descended from Forest Finns, who migrated to Varmland from the Finnish province of Savonia in the 17th century.

Tage Erlander said that his father became increasingly anti-socialist as he aged, speculating that his father was unhappy with his son's eventual election to parliament as a member of a socialist party.

The Tage Erlander family was initially poor, although Erik Gustaf was able to make money through selling homemade furniture and exporting lingonberries to Germany.

Tage Erlander later attended schools in Karlstad, living in a boarding house for children of clergymen.

Tage Erlander was reportedly a good student in high school.

From 1921 to 1922, Tage Erlander carried out his mandatory military service at a machine gun factory in Malmslatt.

Tage Erlander was exposed to societal and economic injustices, and began to identify with socialism.

Tage Erlander met his future wife, fellow student Aina Andersson.

Tage Erlander met and studied natural sciences with fellow student and future physicist Torsten Gustafson, who would later serve as an advisor on nuclear affairs to Erlander during his premiership.

Tage Erlander graduated with a degree in political science and economics in 1928.

Tage Erlander's first major job was a member of the editorial staff of the encyclopedia Svensk upplagsbok from 1928 to 1938.

Tage Erlander joined the Social Democratic Party in 1928, and was elected to the Lund municipal council in 1930.

Tage Erlander was involved in improving poor city housing, lowering unemployment, and installing a new bathhouse.

Tage Erlander was elected as a member of the Riksdag in 1932, representing Fyrstadskretsen, which he would represent until 1944.

Tage Erlander began making political connections, and attracted the attention of prominent Social Democratic politician and Minister for Social Affairs Gustav Moller.

Tage Erlander served as its chairman, and it put forward proposals on grants and regulations of daycare centers and play schools.

Tage Erlander ascended to Prime Minister Per Albin Hansson's World War II coalition cabinet in 1944 as a minister without portfolio, a post he held until the next year.

Tage Erlander was initially skeptical about accepting the role, but he eventually grew accustomed to it, despite not holding the office very long.

Tage Erlander largely left ecclesiastical matters to other politicians, instead focusing on tangible educational reforms.

Tage Erlander was a major driving force behind successful laws providing free school lunches and textbooks.

On October 29,1945, Tage Erlander was visited by Austro-Swedish nuclear physicist Lise Meitner, to discuss Sweden investing in nuclear physics and technology following the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Tage Erlander himself was reluctant and had little interest in becoming prime minister, saying he would only do so if the desire from the party was strong enough.

The choice of Tage Erlander has been attributed to younger party members wanting a younger generation to lead and Tage Erlander being viewed as a greater figure of change, as he was experienced in areas seen as important to Social Democrats such as social and educational policies, and was able to foster cooperation between people with differing views.

Tage Erlander assured Erlander that "things would work out well", and that the two of them would get along as initially he had some disagreements with Per Albin Hansson, who was ideologically a republican.

Nonsocialist newspapers became more critical of Tage Erlander, first casting him as an irrelevant figure, then as an unreliable and uninspiring tactician.

Tage Erlander appointed Josef Weijne to replace him as minister of education and ecclesiastical affairs.

Weijne died in office in 1951, and Tage Erlander appointed Hildur Nygren to succeed him, making her the second woman in Sweden to become a cabinet minister.

In speeches and during Riksdag debates, Tage Erlander frequently attacked the Liberals with accusations including irresponsibility, opportunism, and irreconcilability.

Tage Erlander himself had now been elected as a representative of Stockholm County, following his four years a Malmohus representative.

In 1951, Tage Erlander formed a coalition with the Centre Party.

Tage Erlander added four Centrists to his cabinet that year.

Tage Erlander's working relationship with the party's leader, Gunnar Hedlund, is known to have been good.

Tage Erlander did not get along with Nygren, and used the negotiations as an excuse to remove her.

Tage Erlander served under King Gustaf V for 4 years, and the two had a mutual respect.

Tage Erlander was on good terms with Gustaf VI, but at times disapproved of the new king's more hands-on involvement in political matters than his father, and during Gustaf VI's time as Crown Prince, Tage Erlander saw him as a "rather stiff individual who lacked perspective".

Tage Erlander desired a system that was mandatory for all citizens, while Hedlund wanted the pensions to be voluntary.

Tage Erlander was thus allowed to remain prime minister and formateur, leading a minority government into the next election.

Nine of the ten cabinet ministries Tage Erlander inherited from Hansson's cabinet existed by the end of Tage Erlander's premiership.

Tage Erlander frequently consulted the boys on speeches he planned to make, although according to Olle Svenning, he was rarely satisfied with the speeches they wrote.

Tage Erlander described the election as an "ideological breakthrough", which allowed the Social Democrats to pursue further reform.

Tage Erlander soon admitted to spying for the Soviet Union for 15 years, and it was later estimated that had sold around 160 Swedish defense secrets to the Soviet government.

Tage Erlander had not known about the suspicions until the day Wennerstrom was arrested.

Unden's successor, Foreign Minister Torsten Nilsson informed him via telephone the day of the arrest while Tage Erlander was in a restaurant in Italy on vacation with his wife, and asked him to return to Sweden immediately.

Tage Erlander stated that he would regard votes of censure as a question of confidence in his entire cabinet, and that it was "a tragedy" that Wennerstrom's arrest and trial became a political issue.

In 1954, Tage Erlander met Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Winston Churchill, and the two discussed different electoral systems.

Tage Erlander explained the reason was because that system would benefit the Social Democrats.

The Riksdag would fully become unicameral in 1971, after Tage Erlander had retired from the premiership.

Tage Erlander was initially somewhat controversial, paritially because he was not considered an obvious successor to Per Albin Hansson.

Tage Erlander was initially both praised and criticized for having been a university graduate.

Liberal newspapers were optimistic, as Tage Erlander had more education and administrative experience than Hansson, which was seen as beneficial to the party.

Tage Erlander was seen as a figure whose youth and stronger left-leaning ideals could bring new energy to the party.

Tage Erlander's popularity increased as television began to play an important role in Swedish politics, as Erlander's amiable and humorous personality was more apparent.

Tage Erlander's debating style was controversial, and was criticized by many, including writer Stig Ahlgren.

Tage Erlander garnered a number of nicknames during his tenure as prime minister.

On 1 October 1969, Tage Erlander resigned as prime minister at 68, with an absolute majority for the Social Democrats in the second chamber since 1968.

Palme was later asked when Tage Erlander first hinted to him that he wanted him as his successor.

Kekkonen then asked if it would be Palme, to which Tage Erlander responded, "Never, he is far too intelligent for a Prime Minister".

In 1965, in response to this criticism, Tage Erlander defended the program by arguing that American racial tensions and segregation didn't exist in and couldn't be reproduced in Sweden.

In 1959, Tage Erlander's government proposed raising the previously lowed income taxes, partially to provide funding for recent welfare programs.

In 1964, Tage Erlander's government proposed a new budget that would begin on July 1 of that year.

The expected deficit was $180 million, and to prevent it from increasing, Tage Erlander's government proposed ending deductions of old-age pension fees from taxable income.

Tage Erlander coined the phrase "the strong society", describing a society with a growing public sector taking care of the growing demand on many services that an affluent society creates.

Tage Erlander was initially in favor of acquiring nuclear weapons as a means of defense, but received criticism for this position.

The largest opposition within Tage Erlander's party came from the Social Democrat Women's Organization.

Tage Erlander had his anti-nuclear foreign minister Osten Unden discuss ongoing UN nuclear disarmament talks.

Tage Erlander proposed delaying the decision until 1958, because, according to him, the government lacked sufficient knowledge about the technical prerequisites to have nuclear weapons, and that he did not want to complicate the disarmament talks by producing nuclear weapons at that time.

Under Tage Erlander, Sweden had to navigate the challenges of the Cold War.

In Tage Erlander's 1952 United States tour, he stated that Sweden would not join NATO.

Tage Erlander was generally considered a pro-Western leader despite this, and wrote that America was doing Europe a great service by allowing itself to increase their arms for defense against the Soviet Union.

Tage Erlander was a strong supporter of the proposed Nordic economic community Nordek, and held meetings on the subject with Finnish President Urho Kekkonen and Prime Minister Mauno Koivisto in 1969.

In 1952, as part of his US tour, Erlander visited United States President Harry S Truman, which was the first time a Swedish Prime Minister and a US president met.

In 1950, Tage Erlander condemned the aggression of North Korea that began the Korean War, deeming it, "a deed of violence calculated to imperil world peace".

However, Tage Erlander was willing to cancel the trip should the Soviet government have refused to accept the information the Swedish government had collected on Raoul Wallenberg, a businessman and humanitarian who had served as Sweden's special envoy in Budapest.

Tage Erlander stated that the government could not polemicize against these opinions, as he felt that it would give them undue importance.

In 1963, after the arrest of Stig Wennerstrom, Tage Erlander stated that the case had seriously disturbed relations between Sweden and the Soviet Union.

Tage Erlander declined to state how the sentencing might affect Khrushchev's visit.

In that same visit, Tage Erlander was unable to get information out of Khrushchev relating to Raoul Wallenberg.

Tage Erlander stated that he did not have the power to do so, but advised Modise to publicly lobby for the policy.

In 1962, Tage Erlander became the first Swedish prime minister to visit Israel.

Tage Erlander stated that he was "fascinated" by the country, and he invited Premier Ben-Gurion to visit Sweden.

Tage Erlander remained in the Riksdag for several years after it became unicameral.

Tage Erlander resigned from the Riksdag in 1973, after holding seats there for over forty years.

Tage Erlander wrote an article for Svenska Dagbladet in 1972 explaining his motives for doing so.

Tage Erlander died on 21 June 1985 in Stockholm at the age of 84 from pneumonia and heart failure.

Tage Erlander's coffin was covered with a socialist flag and blue and yellow flowers, and was carried through Stockholm.

Unlike many other left-leaning intellectuals, Tage Erlander did not sympathize with the Soviet Union, although he did attempt to maintain positive Swedish-Soviet relations.

Tage Erlander acknowledged the need for women to play a larger role in politics and hold cabinet positions.

Tage Erlander admired the writings of Adlai Stevenson II, because Stevenson "expressed his views more deftly than he could himself".

Tage Erlander met his future wife Aina Andersson while they were both students at Lund University.

Tage Erlander starting using it as a vacation home that year, and all prime ministers since have continued this practice.

For most of his career, the Tage Erlander family lived in an apartment in Bromma, Stockholm, until the summer of 1964, when they moved to an apartment in a high-rise complex in Stockholm's Gamla stan district.

Tage Erlander did not have an official car to travel in, and visiting foreign heads of state were often surprised to see that he usually arrived at events alone.

Tage Erlander was known to be a dedicated diarist, often writing daily entries, with his diaries serving as key sources for his memoirs.

Tage Erlander wrote on a variety of subjects, and initially wrote to help him remember things related to his work, such as occurrences, arguments, and decisions, going into greater detail on matters he thought were controversial.

Tage Erlander wrote about matters including his family, his health at the time, plays he saw and books he read, and his impressions of other people.

Ingvar Carlsson stated that to him, Tage Erlander became like a second father or a guide.

Biographers Harrison and Ruin note that although Tage Erlander was in power longer than any other Swedish leader, he didn't seek power for himself, which Carlsson affirmed.

Tage Erlander was an avid lover of literature and theatre, which often served as a source of recreation.

At one of these meetings, Student Association members Olof Ruin and Lars Bergquist proposed that Tage Erlander should give annual speeches to Lund students, to which Tage Erlander agreed.

Tage Erlander served as prime minister for 23 years, making him the longest-serving one in Swedish history.

Tage Erlander has been dubbed a "political giant" who transformed Sweden's political climate and brought the nation together.

Tage Erlander has been compared to other notable Swedish "political giants" such as Palme and Dag Hammarskjold.

In general, following Sweden's economic crises in the 1970s, the Swedish Model, and to some extent Tage Erlander's premiership, was scrutinized more.

The Tage Erlander Prize, given by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, is a prize for research in natural sciences, technology, and mathematics which is named after Erlander.

Tage Erlander was a nominee for the 1971 Nobel Peace Prize, although he didn't win.